


In This Town (We Call Home)

by Hoothootmotherf_ckers



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Disabled Character, F/F, Fluff, Halloween, just straight halloween fluff, or rather lesbian halloween fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 08:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16280954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoothootmotherf_ckers/pseuds/Hoothootmotherf_ckers
Summary: Ren and Noelle and their favorite time of the year.(look, I wanted to write two cute lesbians having an absolutely adorable Halloween. Sue me.)Title from the song "This Is Halloween"





	In This Town (We Call Home)

It’s well into fall now, red-gold leaves piling up on the edges of sidewalks and morning frosts hinting at seasons soon to come. Ren is curled up in the bay window of her little Victorian townhouse, watching the auburn tree outside sway in the slight breeze. Her girlfriend, Noelle, walks over to join her, a blanket trailing from her arms and two mugs of cocoa clutched in her hands. Ren smiles up at her, then scoots to the side of the window so they’ll both fit. They rest there for a while, Ren’s head on Noelle’s shoulder, draped in a blanket and sipping their drinks, before Noelle speaks up.

“So… it’s a couple days into October already,” she says, almost nervously. “It’s going to be our first Halloween together, I mean, living together, and you love Halloween and I do too…” 

“If you’re trying to say we should go all out on Halloween this year, _hell yeah_ I’m in,” Ren says back with a smile up at her girlfriend. “I already have some ideas, want to make a plan of attack?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Noelle grins back, pulling out a pad of paper and an orange pen. They spend the next few hours curled up in the window, throwing ideas back and forth and watching the sky outside fade to gold and then to black. Eventually, stars high in the sky, Noelle fades off to sleep mid sentence, a trail of orange ink left on the paper. Carefully, Ren gathers up the mugs, the notes, and then her smaller girlfriend, so she can get some rest before their important mission in the morning. 

The next day finds Ren and Noelle in the halls of a party store. Ren’s armed with a clipboard, their notes, and a shopping cart, and has a concise plan on how to get everything they need to decorate. Noelle, on the other hand, is flitting between the aisles, finding decorations they just _can’t_ live without. At first, Ren holds firm, citing budget and space, but she soon caves to her girlfriend’s pleading and adorable expression. They leave the store with about two dozen more tiny pumpkins than they planned.

That afternoon is spent transforming their house into a spectacular display of orange lights, with adorable decals of bats and witches and little black cats lining the pale yellow walls of the house. The final touches go up at the end of the day - Ren, the taller of the two by far, climbs a ladder to the roof to bedeck their home with armfuls of fake spiderwebs, while Noelle sits on the porch and paints little jack-o-lanterns all over her prosthetics. Once it’s all done, they step out onto the sidewalk to survey their work and can’t stop grinning. It’s hard to get more Halloween than they have. 

Ren’s family has a tradition of watching fun family movies like _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ in the weeks leading up to Halloween. However, Noelle’s leaned much more toward the fully horror genre. They compromise, alternating films every day. Noelle will come home from work smelling like apples and spices, and Ren covered in orange paint from crafts and ink smudges from grading. They’ll curl up together on the couch, swathed in a mountain of blankets, as Ren explains the behind the scenes of her favorite movies and Noelle holds her close during the scary ones.

It’s a tradition of their own making, not of their families, to hide their costumes from each other until the day of. It started when both were in college, barely acquaintances, and they showed up to a mutual friend’s Halloween party both dressed as pirates. Taako had found it hilarious and kept pushing them together all night, which would have been annoying if they hadn’t turned out to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. That party spiraled into a real friendship, and then eventually a series of dates that led them to where they were today. As a result of that first real meeting, they keep their costume plans a secret, just in case the accidental matching could happen again. It hasn’t yet in the four years since that Halloween, but they still hope. And it adds extra hilarity to the holiday, watching Noelle try to explain away the silver paint covering her hands or Ren the yards of black fabric that just _happen_ to be in the closet.

The weekend before Halloween is a flurry of activity. Noelle can be found in the kitchen, baking all kinds of treats for the upcoming festivities. Halloween music is blasting through their small house, forcing baking breaks to dance along to favorites like “Thriller” and the “Monster Mash.” Ren sings along from her place at the table, painstakingly painting dozens of tiny pumpkins with scary or cute faces. Sometimes she’s swept up from her seat by her girlfriend and they spin across the kitchen floor, belting out the Ghostbusters theme and only stopping when they get too dizzy and fall over laughing or the oven timer goes off. 

One day before Halloween, they go shopping for some full-sized pumpkins. Ren picks out one that’s perfect for carving, long and sleek and golden-orange. Noelle goes the opposite direction, finding one that’s adorably squat and lumpy and hideous. They take them home and start cutting them open, scooping out the seeds to bake. Ren carves an elegant, sinuous cat into hers in a way that seems to defy physics, while Noelle cuts a wonky, buck-toothed smile into hers. They set them out on the porch, side by side, drastically different yet somehow complimentary.

The morning of Halloween passes in a blur. Ren, as a teacher, can wear her costume to work, so to keep things fair Noelle keeps her eyes covered until she’s out of the house. Then Noelle pushes dress codes and rules of style to their absolute limits with a bright orange blouse, orange headband tying back her fluffy red hair, and pumpkin patterned socks to match her left arm and leg prosthetics. 

Noelle does manage to duck out of work early, so she’s able to change into her costume before her girlfriend gets home. Ren takes one step in the door and immediately bursts out laughing.

“Damn, Noelle, now that’s real on the nose,” she chokes out, almost doubled over in hilarity. She has to make a quick catch as her hat falls off her sleek black hair, as Ren is dressed as a very stylish witch in a long black gown covered in silver spiderweb patterns. Her girlfriend is a bit more silvery, though.

Noelle had decided to dress as a robot, her face and frizzing hair poking out from the front of a massive metallic painted box. Her prosthetic limbs stick out from the sides, her right arm sheathed in silver tubing. She grins, completely unashamed.

“Well, I already do all the ‘lend you a hand’ style jokes, I figured I had to step it up a notch. Beep boop!” She waves her arms and Ren, just barely having composed herself, collapses again. 

“No, c’mon, it’s time for you to do some magic and light the pumpkins!” Noelle laughs, pulling her girlfriend up. They step out onto the porch together, surveying the street. The sky is darkening and turning from red to an inky blue. Wisps of cloud veil a near-full moon, and a brisk breeze blows leaves in little eddies down the road. Voices carry on the wind, the indistinct cheers and chatter that mean the trick-or-treating has already begun. It’s absolutely perfect. 

Both pumpkins are lit with a flourish, flickering golden light out into the twilight sky. It’s only a few minutes later that Ren and Noelle’s guests begin to arrive. Taako, another teacher at Ren’s school, is first to arrive, but he brings a coordinated entourage with him. He’s dressed as Luke Skywalker, his sister Lup as Leia, and Lup’s husband Barry as Han Solo. Taako’s husband Kravitz and his young son are only there to say hi, as they have the important business of trick-or-treating to get to, but Angus is absolutely adorable in his R2-D2 costume. Kravitz, begrudgingly, has been convinced to dress as C-3PO. 

The guests burst into the house in a flurry, with Taako commandeering the kitchen and Lup lighting candles in all corners of the home. Soon it’s bright and cheery with the flicker of firelight and the bustle of conversation. Noelle’s coworkers Carey and Killian arrive dressed as a dragon and an orc, and laugh so hard when they see Noelle’s costume that Carey’s tail almost hits a candle. Merle and Davenport show up mixed in with a crowd of trick-or-treaters, and Merle tries to scam some candy off Ren, who doesn’t fall for it. After all, few children would dress as Jimmy Buffett for Halloween. Davenport does get snuck some candy, both to spite Merle and in awe of his spectacular astronaut garb. The last to arrive are Magnus and Lucretia, who have gone the sibling costume route as well: she makes a very elegant Mary Poppins and he makes a very, very large penguin. 

Soon all are seated at a long table, laughing and talking and eating a wonderful meal prepared by Taako and the hosts. It’s cheery with just the right amount of spookiness. And all the guests get really into giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, Magnus once running into the door in his attempt to get there before the doorbell finished ringing. Shrieks of joy echo down the street and filter into a home full of warmth and friendship and laughter.

Eventually, though, things must come to an end. Ren and Noelle wave their guests goodbye from their porch, hands clasped. Then the last goodbye is said, the last car door is shut, and the happy couple are left to enjoy the last few hours of Halloween in the peace and flickering candlelight.


End file.
